View Message

I have a genealogy book that covers Wilson County NC from about 1775 until 1855. Temperance "Tempy" and Obedience "Bedie" are fairly common and the most popular among the Virtue names I'm going to tally up the names and make some posts about my findings in the future

I love Tennessee, hate Dixie (it's too associated with the Civil War) - it's kind of funny to me though that Tennie and Dixie obstensibly would mean the same thing. And if you're going for archaic, I suggest Pallas / Paulus / Palace over Dallas (Dallas is currently popular).

---

Plutina is one of my favorite names right now. Pharisee and Stonewall are a couple I think are ironic. French names like Antoine, Rene, Jacques are potentially historically more southern (excepting Maine?). Maybe Dreama, Artelia, Mozelle, Loveline, Jency, Fredonia, Corinthia, Queen, Thornetta, Willobeĺle, Pleasant, Denny, Napoleon, Amzi - or stuff like that; it's hard to say what was more common regionally apart from very rare names, and even then, there's overlap...there was a lot of moving around.

---

Out of the names I've seen that were somewhat common in the (British) American colonies in the 1700s, I would be the most surprised to see these used for an American baby today (starring my favs): Polly, Dolly, Thankful, Bathsheba*, Lucretia*, Hester, Dinah, Huldah, Vashti*, Jemima*, Ruhamah/Ruhama, Sabra, Mehetabel*, Sylvanus, Luther, Ephraim, Job, Enoch, Ebenezer* (Ebenezer was definitely more common in New England, though). Most of the other common ones I think of seem classic, current, or recently popular (well, 20th century, so relatively). Isabella and Arabella might have been more southern? Priscilla was common and seems one of the most blatantly 18th century to me, but the popularity chart contradicts that.

... Load Full Message

This message was edited 4/7/2024, 1:22 PM

My grandmother's name is Rivanna ("Rih-VAN-nuh"), which is Southern Archaic, according this this site (after I submitted it a long time ago). I have always thought that it was a very gorgeous and wonderful name (Also, a prime example of a unique, old-south name!).

---

Some examples Southern Archaic/old-southern names that I enjoy:

---

Male:
Leroy
Chester
Otis
Alhric
Thalen

---

Female:
Jennetta
Estelene / Estellene
Nara
Elsianna "Ell-see-AN-uh"
Derinda
Fayetta
Renessa
Denia
Doralise
Dorolyn
Zerilda
Pearla
Verla
Sheba
Zephria
Lindora
Delvene

This message was edited 4/6/2024, 10:08 AM

Temperance to me is more of a New England Puritan name than southern. Dallas feels very modern. Not sure if Dixie was very common in the old south; the only Dixie I ever met is from Maryland and might be in her ffifties.

---

I'm also unsure about just how southern the names Texas and Tennessee were, or rather, how much they were used at all, especially down south.
Cleodora is way out in left field. Not sure you can classify it as anything.

---

From what I can tell, southern names in the old days didn't actually vary much from names used up north except for those names which were typically Puritan and thus New England.

---

My own feeling is that Eliza is very Old South. Savannah kind of has that vibe but that may only be because of the Georgia city; it's definitely more popular in recent decades than any other time.